Systems and methods for determining social regard scores

ABSTRACT

A system is disclosed for evaluating communicative acts to determine a social regard score between two communicating entities participating in the communicative act. The two communicating entities collectively define a communication pair. The system includes a patterns database and an etiquette processor. The patterns database stores behavior recognition patterns defining particular redressive behaviors that may be used in the communicative acts and a redress score associated with each one of the particular redressive behaviors. The etiquette processor is in communication with the patterns database and is configured to determine a pairwise regard score for the communicative pair based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in the communicative acts between the two communicating entities of the communicative pair.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

This invention was made with government support under contract number N0001 4-09-C-026 awarded by the Office of Naval Research. The government has certain rights in the invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

During interactions between one or more communicators, various social conventions are typically used based on the relationships of the communicators relative to one another. All such interactions carry a threat of altering one's perceived position in a social relationship. Oftentimes, various forms of politeness or redress are used to avoid one communicator giving offense to the other. Redress may take the form of positive or negative redress. Positive redress includes actions that are directed toward the desire of the recipient of the communication to have his needs, intentions, etc. accepted or liked. Negative redress includes actions focusing on the need of the recipient of the communication to independently take action and attention. The threat that one's position as perceived by others may be altered due to events or components of an interaction is a function of the power difference between the communicators, their degree of familiarity with one another, and the degree of imposition of the interaction. Typically, as the threat of a negatively altered position is increased, the politeness and redress used by the communicator facing the negative threat is also increased in an attempt to balance the communication.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the invention relates to a system for evaluating communicative acts to determine a social regard score between two communicating entities participating in the communicative act. The two communicating entities collectively define a communication pair. The system includes a patterns database and an etiquette processor. The patterns database stores behavior recognition patterns defining particular redressive behaviors that may be used in the communicative acts and a redress score associated with each one of the particular redressive behaviors. The etiquette processor is in communication with the patterns database and is configured to determine a pairwise regard score for the communicative pair based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in the communicative acts between the two communicating entities of the communicative pair. Other embodiments including other systems, methods, and products are also disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will be described with respect to the figures, in which like reference numerals denote like elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a communicative act between a sender and a receiver, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is schematic illustration of relational components between a sender and a receiver, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a general method for building a regard network, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a regard evaluation system for receiving and evaluating communicative acts based on social regard, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a portion of the system of FIG. 4, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a spreadsheet illustrating one example of redressive elements of a communicative act scored to determine the redressive value of the communicative act, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of an output showing a power-based network indicating communication volume, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method for receiving and evaluating communicative acts based on social regard, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of a social regard network, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a graphical output indicating changes in entity regard over time, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a graphical output showing the occurrence count, score value, and weighted score value for a number of redressive elements analyzed over a plurality of communicative acts, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description should be read with reference to the drawings, in which like elements in different drawings are numbered in like fashion. The drawings depict selected embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize that many of the examples provided may have suitable alternatives that could be utilized with out departing from the spirit of the invention.

Observations of human communication can tell an observing individual who is familiar with the cultural norms used in the communication much about the relationships and attitudes of those entities involved in the communication. In general, social actors or entities are motivated by a set of wants including important social wants based on the concept of “face” or the positive social value one claims for oneself. Face can be saved or lost in any given communication between entities. Face threats stem from any intentional move that limits an entity's (i.e., person's or group's) ability to pursue his or her own goals and/or ability to maintain a belief that his or her perspective and beliefs are important and valued. Virtually all interactions between entities involve some degree of threat to the entity's face, that is, are face-threatening acts (FTAs).

Individual communications can be analyzed and scored to estimate the power or regard difference between communicating entities in the communication, for example, by assigning values to components of the communications, and placing the values into predefined equations relating to redressive acts and the power involved in such communications. In one embodiment, one or more computer processors are specifically programmed and configured to automatically perform such analysis and scoring using defined sets of scoring rules, patterns, templates, etc. as will be described in further detail below. In one example, such scoring, etc. is performed based on specific cultural patterns and norms to further enhance the cultural sensitivity, and thereby, bolster the accuracy of such programs. Once scoring is completed, in one example, the system outputs regard network mapping and various other outputs useful in analyzing the workings of the network based on power and regard. In one embodiment, the system and method described herein allows a network with a previously unknown hierarchy (i.e., unknown to the party employing this system and method) to be mapped. In one embodiment, this system and method allows for mapping and other analysis of a known network to study the regard and power asserted and displayed therein.

In one theory, for example, presented by Brown and Levinson (see P. Brown & S. Levinson, Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage, p. 76. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987, which is incorporated herein by reference), the weightiness W of a FTA relates to the power level P between the sender and the receiver, the social distance D between the sender and the receiver, and the ranked imposition R of the communicative act. Brown and Levinsion further claim the degree of face threat posed by any given communicative act is represented by the following qualitative function:

$\begin{matrix} {{W_{x} = {{P\left( {R,S} \right)} + {D\left( {S,R} \right)} + R_{x}}}{{Where}\text{:}}{{W_{x} = {{weightiness}\mspace{14mu}{or}\mspace{14mu}{severity}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{face}\mspace{14mu}{threatening}\mspace{14mu}{act}\mspace{14mu} x}};}{{{P\left( {R,S} \right)} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{relative}\mspace{14mu}{power}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{receiver}\mspace{14mu} R\mspace{14mu}{over}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{sender}\mspace{14mu} S}};\mspace{14mu}{{this}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu}{an}\mspace{14mu}{asymmetrical}\mspace{14mu}{relationship}};}{{{D\left( {S,R} \right)} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{social}\mspace{14mu}{distance}\mspace{14mu}{between}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{sender}\mspace{14mu} S\mspace{14mu}{and}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{receiver}\mspace{14mu} R}};\mspace{14mu}{{this}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu} a\mspace{14mu}{symmetrical}\mspace{14mu}{relationship}};\mspace{14mu}{and}}{R_{x} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{ranked}\mspace{14mu}{imposition}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{raw}\mspace{14mu}{{act}.}}}} & \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 1} \right) \end{matrix}$

Accordingly to one embodiment of the invention, FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a communicative act 12 between a communicative pair including a first entity E₁ and a second entity E₂. More specifically, in FIG. 1, first entity E₁ is the sender 14 of communicative act 12 and second entity E₂ is the receiver 16 of communicative act 12. First entity E₁ and second entity E₂ are each a person, group, etc. capable of communicating via communicative act 12, which may be a verbal, text-based, or gesture encoded (email, text, letter, chat, message board, blog, etc.) communication. First entity E₁ and second entity E₂ are related to one another, for example, as part of a larger entity or organization and a relative power 20 and a social distance 22 exist between the two.

In one embodiment, observer 27 is a third party entity that may or may not be part of the larger entity or organization that listens, views, observes, and/or analyzes communicative act 12. In one example, observer 27 analyzes communicative act 12 unbeknownst to sender 14 and receiver 16 according to the systems and processes described in this application while in another example, sender 14 and/or receiver 16 is aware of the presense of observer 27. In one example, observer 27 is or is aided by a computer processing system analyzing communicative act 12, as will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading this application.

Relative power 20 or power distance represents the difference in power between first entity E₁ and second entity E₂. Relative power 20 is generally an asymmetrical relationship, where the one of first entity E₁ and second entity E₂ having more power will have a positive relative power 20 score over the other of first entity E₁ and second entity E₂, and the one of first entity E₁ and second entity E₂ having less power will have a negative relative power 20 score over the other of first entity E₁ and second entity E₂. Power comes from different sources in different cultures and organizations and is particularly important in military, pseudo-military, and other high-level civilian organizations.

Social distance 22 is symmetrical between first entity E₁ and second entity E₂ and is roughly the inverse of familiarity. As such, social distance 22 decreases with contact and interaction between first entity E₁ and second entity E₂ and/or may be based on a priori factors such as membership in the same family, clan, or organization.

Ranked imposition 24 of a communicative act relates to the raw act itself. The more sender 14 is asking of receiver 16 the higher the imposition. Imposition calculations are based on the weighted sum of the monetary value, time commitment, and opportunity cost to the receiver that is required for the completion of the task presented in communicative act 12. Some degree of imposition is culturally defined. For example, it is more of an imposition to request food from a host in a Western culture than in an Arabic culture. Ranked imposition 24 is the degree of imposition present in communicative act 12.

Communicative act 12, relative power 20, and social distance 22 do not occur in a vacuum, but rather are influenced by a culture 28 in which they occur or exist. The impact of the various components of power, social distance, imposition, etc. change based on the cultural norms and influences of given culture 28. As such, according to one embodiment, the above qualitative weightiness function can be further refined and expressed as the following quantitative function: W _(X) =W _(A) ·P(R,S)+W _(B) ·D(S,R)+W _(C) ·R _(X)  (Equation 2)

-   -   Where previously introduced variables are as described above         and:     -   W_(A), W_(B), and W_(C)=the respective scalar values applied to         the variables based on the importance that an observer (e.g.,         the receiver) believes should be attributed to a respective         element given culture 28 in which the communicative act is         occurring.

Since face threats can degrade or at least disrupt relationships between communicating entities such as first entity E₁ and second entity E₂, entities often use redressive strategies to mitigate the face threat. In modeling the invention described in further detail below and referring to the schematic illustration of FIG. 2, in typical communicative acts 12, redress 26 is meant to balance out or neutralize the weightiness W of communicative act 12. However, if too much redress or not enough redress is employed in communicative act 12, an imbalance in communicative act 12 is created. Such imbalance is represented by the following function:

$\begin{matrix} {{I_{x} = {{V\left( A_{x} \right)} - W_{x}}}{{Where}\text{:}}{{I_{x} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{perceived}\mspace{14mu}{imbalance}\mspace{14mu}{between}{\mspace{11mu}\;}{the}\mspace{14mu}{face}\mspace{14mu}{threat}\mspace{14mu}{and}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{redness}\mspace{14mu}{used}}};}{{{V\left( A_{x} \right)} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{combined}\mspace{14mu}{redressive}\mspace{14mu}{value}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{set}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{politeness}\mspace{14mu}{behaviors}\mspace{14mu}\left( A_{x} \right)\mspace{14mu}{used}\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{interaction}\mspace{14mu} x}};\mspace{14mu}{and}}{W_{x} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{weightness}\mspace{14mu}{or}\mspace{14mu}{severity}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{face}\mspace{14mu}{threatening}\mspace{14mu}{act}\mspace{14mu}{x.}}}} & \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 3} \right) \end{matrix}$

Following this equation for imbalance, when less redress is used than is perceived necessary, imbalance is negative and the communicative act is perceived as rude. When more politeness is used than is deemed necessary, then the calculated imbalance will be positive and the communicative act will be perceived as over-polite or obsequious. Small levels of imbalance are very common and are largely ignored in everyday communications.

Classes of redressive strategies include off-record strategies, negative redress strategies, and positive redress strategies. Off-record strategies complete the communicative act of imposition but with “plausible” deniability using innuendo and hints. Examples of off-record redress include giving hints about motives or conditions for doing the act, giving association clues, presuppositions, understatements, overstatements, use of tautologies, use of contradictions, use of irony, use of metaphors, use of rhetorical questions, use of ambiguity, vagueness, user of over-generalizations, incomplete statements (e.g., use of ellipsis), etc.

Negative redress strategies focus on receiver's 16 need to independently take action and attention, i.e., negative face needs. Such strategies tend to minimize the impact of the imposing act by being direct and simple, offering apologies and deference, minimizing the magnitude of the imposition, and/or explicitly incurring a debt. In general, negative redress strategies are common when power differences between sender 14 and receiver 16 are acknowledged and supported and, as a class, said to be more potent than positive redress, but less potent than off-record strategies. Examples of negative redress strategies include using questions or hedging, being conventionally indirect, being pessimistic, giving deference, offering a direct apology, impersonalizing the act by avoiding the pronouns “I” and “you,” nominalizing the act, incurring debt, and/or not indebting the receiver.

Positive redress strategies go after the positive face of receiver 16, that is, his desire to have his needs, intentions, etc. be accepted or liked. Positive redress strategies emphasize common ground between sender 14 and receiver 16 invoking an in-group identity, by joking and assuming agreement, and/or explicitly offering rewards or promises. Examples of positive redress include attending to recipient's interests, wants, needs, and/or goods; exaggerating interest; approval, or sympathy with the receiver; intensifying interest to the receiver; use of in-group only markers; seeing agreement; avoiding disagreement; presupposing or asserting common ground; joking; use of promises; expressing optimism; including receiver 16 in the activity; giving reasons for the action; assuming or asserting reciprocity; and giving gifts to receiver 16. Positive redress is more likely to be used where power differences either are minimized or do not exist and tends to minimize social distance.

In one embodiment, general behavior recognition patterns 72 include a scoring system for redressive acts. For example, individual positive redressive elements are assigned a numerical value between 1 and 40 depending on their pre judged potency (i.e., strength of redress in actually saving face), and individual negative redressive elements are assigned a numerical value between 20 and 60 based on the pre judged potency of such redress. In one embodiment, off-record redress strategies are largely ignored for scoring purposes, as they are more difficult to identify and tend to be idiosyncratic. In one embodiment, off-record redress strategies are scored. The specific values for individual acts are pre-assigned by individuals knowledgeable about the specific culture for the communicative acts, etc. Notably, there may be, and commonly are, multiple redressive strategies used in a single communicative act. The numerical score for each strategy or communicative element is combined (e.g., summed) to get the final redressive act value.

By ascribing numerical scored values to each of the relative categories described above and the individual communicative acts 12 within each category, unknown entities within an organization can be compared and given a pairwise regard or power score. The aggregation of the regard and/or power scores between paired entities can then be combined with scores for other pairs of entities to produce a directed graph or map of the power or regard of individuals relative to one another in an organization. These relative mappings are then combined to produce an organizational regard chart, which typically matches or closely resembles a general organizational chart for the group or organization and/or other suitable output.

In one embodiment, the calculations are based on Equation 3 expressed above, resulting in the following expression of power and social distance, otherwise referred to as regard:

$\begin{matrix} {{{Regard} = {{P + D} = {{V\left( A_{x} \right)} - R - I_{x}}}}{{P = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{relative}\mspace{14mu}{power}\mspace{14mu}{of}{\mspace{11mu}\;}{the}\mspace{14mu}{receiver}\mspace{14mu} R\mspace{14mu}{over}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{sender}\mspace{14mu} S}};}{{D = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{social}\mspace{14mu}{distance}\mspace{14mu}{between}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{sender}\mspace{14mu} S{\mspace{11mu}\;}{and}\mspace{14mu}{receiver}\mspace{14mu} R}};}{{{V\left( A_{x} \right)} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{combined}\mspace{14mu}{redressive}\mspace{14mu}{value}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{set}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{politeness}\mspace{14mu}{behaviors}\mspace{14mu}\left( A_{x} \right)\mspace{14mu}{used}\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{11mu}{interaction}\mspace{14mu} x}};}{{R_{x} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{ranked}\mspace{14mu}{imposition}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{raw}\mspace{14mu}{act}}};\mspace{14mu}{and}}{I_{x} = {{the}\mspace{14mu}{perceived}\mspace{14mu}{imbalance}\mspace{14mu}{between}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{face}\mspace{14mu}{threat}\mspace{14mu}{and}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{redness}\mspace{14mu}{{used}.}}}} & \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 4} \right) \end{matrix}$

Most interactions between entities are intended to be perceived with an imbalance I_(X) of (or near) zero. In many instances, social distance is nominal in comparison to the other values involved especially where all analyzed entities are subject to at least some predisposed relationship, e.g., are part of the same group, organization, sect, etc. Then, regard and power can be expressed as: P=V(A _(X))−R  (Equation 5)

In such examples, a redressive score is assigned to each communicative element of the communicative act 12 and summed. Subtracting the ranked imposition of the act, based on a pre-defined set of scoring rules, provides a relative estimate of regard and/or power of an entity within the organization. This process is repeated for multiple communicative acts 12 and averaged or otherwise combined to give an overall regard or power score.

FIG. 3 illustrates a general method 40 used to map an organization based on regard. More detailed embodiments will be further described below. At 42, textual versions of communicative acts 12 (see FIG. 1) between entities, e.g., first entity E₁ and second entity E₂, are collected. In one embodiment, communicative acts 12 are collected via one or more of transcriptions of spoken (phone or face-to-face) communications, internet relay chat (IRC), forum communications, emails, social networking tools (e.g., Twitter® and Facebook®), and blogs among other possible sources.

At 44, regard evaluation system 50 (see FIG. 4) parses communicative acts 12 (see FIG. 1) collected and scores the elements following basic guidelines and scoring set forth below to produce a regard score for each sender 14 (see FIG. 1) in each communicative act 12, for example, based on the equations presented above. In one embodiment, the regard scores are calculated from the perspective of the respective sender. Positive numbers imply high regard while negative numbers imply negative regard or apathy. At 46, regard evaluation system 50 combines all regard scores between two entities, e.g., first entity E₁ and second entity E₂, into a single aggregated regard score by averaging the individual regard scores or by other suitable methods to provide a more neutral regard score than the individual regard scores that may be slightly skewed due to their basis on the perception of the respective sender only.

Then, at 48, regard evaluation system 50 uses the aggregated regard scores between two entities, e.g., first entity E₁ and second entity E₂, in combination with the regard scores between first entity E₁, second entity E₂, and other entities (e.g., third entity E₃ and fourth entity E₄ as illustrated) in the organization to create a social regard or power graph or map. As shown in the limited map as in operation 48, arcs between the same entity nodes are grouped and numbers next to the entity indicate the regard for that entity.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, first entity E₁ has a regard score of −12 with respect to second entity E₁ and a regard score of 18 with regard to third entity E₃. These scores in comparison with the respect regard scores of second entity E₂ and third entity E₃ relative to first entity E₁ (i.e., 23 and 44 respectively as illustrated), would tend to indicate that first entity E₁ would fall in a resulting regard social network below both second entity E₂ and third entity E₃ as both second entity E₂ and third entity E₃ have higher regard scores than first entity E1 relative to one another. In one embodiment, as described below, the two regard scores between a pair of entities (e.g., first entity E1 and second entity E2) are combined (e.g., averaged) resulting in a single pairwise regard score (not shown in FIG. 3) between the two entities in the communicative pair. Averaging the two regard scores, which are each based on the perception of the respective sender, provides a more neutral regard score less likely to be skewed by misperception of the respective senders. Other methods of graphing such data will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the present application.

One embodiment of a regard evaluation system 50 is illustrated in FIG. 4 and includes discourse parser 52, etiquette engine 54, culture specific value databases 56, communications network extractor 58, communications network aggregator 60, and output writers 62. Generally speaking, regard evaluation system 50 is configured to receive captured communicative acts 12, to evaluate such communicative acts 12 based on predetermined scoring principles, and to output useful data sets including social regard networks indicating the power chart or map of an organization.

More specifically, in one embodiment, discourse parser 52 is a hardware processor or similar component. In one example, discourse parser 52 is configured to break down communicative acts 12 into grammatical parts, uncover the underlying functional relationship between such parts, and pass along such information for further analysis by etiquette engine 54 and/or communications network extractor 58. In one embodiment, discourse parser 52 further labels and/or identifies the entities participating in each communicative act 12. More specifically, discourse parser 52 may actually identify an entity by its name, etc. or may instead simply identify an entity as being a separate unit and assigning an anonymous identifier to the entity, e.g., E_(n). In one embodiment, discourse parser 52 functions substantially automatically without human interaction with discourse parser 52 once discourse parser 52 receives communicative acts 12 for analysis.

Etiquette engine 54 includes a hardware processor or similar component that receives the parsed communicative acts from discourse parser 52. Using patterns, rules, and/or algorithms as well as a selected one of cultural specific patterns obtained from the respective culture specific values database 56 a selected from the plurality of such databases 56 or records within a single database, etiquette engine 54 scores elements of communicative act 12 and combines the element scores, e.g., per the above or similar equations to produce relative power scores for entities involved in communicative acts 12. In one embodiment, as more specifically indicated in FIG. 5, etiquette engine 54 includes a politeness behavior recognizing processor 70 and a general behavior recognition patterns database 72. In one embodiment, general behavior recognition patterns database 72 includes patterns for scoring parsed communicative acts 68 received from discourse parser 52 (see FIG. 4), for example, following various principles described in this application. Examples of additional details of patterns for scoring elements of communicative acts 12 are described in Miller, C., Wu, P., Funk, H., Wilson, P, and Johnson, L. (2006); A computational approach to etiquette and politeness: Initial test cases; In Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (BRIMS); 15-18 May 2006; Baltimore, Md., which is incorporated by reference herein. Other scoring variations will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the present application. Following scoring, etiquette engine 54, more precisely, politeness behavior recognizing processor 70, outputs pairwise power or regard scores for each communicative act 12 or group of communicative acts 12 as generally illustrated in FIG. 5 at 76.

In one embodiment, scoring communicative acts 12 includes looking for the inclusion or omission of specific elements in each communicative act 12 and the politeness of such inclusion or omission as outlined, for example, in general behavior recognition patterns database 72. For example, in an email exchange, the inclusion of a salutation, greeting/recognition, closing, and signature are among the elements of communicative act 12 considered during scoring. Salutations (e.g., “hi,” “dear,” “good morning,” etc.) are forms of well wishing or gift giving and are examples of positive redress strategies. As such, general behavior recognition patterns database 72 will include positive redress scores for each of a plurality of specific or types of salutations. Greetings/recognitions refers to the use or non-use of a name or names of receiver 16. Name use can be considered either a positive or a negative redress strategy depending on the degree of formality and/or use of an honorific. Accordingly, in one embodiment, general behavior recognition patterns database 72 will include positive redress scores for each of a plurality of specific or types of greetings and recognitions included in an email based communicative act. The presence of a closing (e.g., regards, thanks, cheers, etc.) in an email communicative act 12 are generally positive redress strategies (offering, incurring debts, well-wishing), but can occasionally be negative redress strategies, such as where a closing offers an apology, etc. In one embodiment, general behavior recognition patterns database 72 will include positive redress scores for each of a plurality of specific or types of closings. Use of a signature apart from a machine generated closing address generally is a sign of deference and respect, i.e., a negative redress strategy resulting in a positive, but generally relatively small, redress score.

In one embodiment, other elements of communicative acts 12 are scored for their redress values (whether a positive or negative value), for example, such elements include one or more of the following: presence of typographical errors, use of abbreviations, complete vs. fragmented sentence structure, positive and negative redress strategies (e.g., desires, requests, third person references, apologies, use of gratitude components, use of please, provision of opinion, directives provided, and in group or out group references), etc. In one example, each occurrence of the redressive elements described above and/or other redressive elements having a predefined score, e.g., stored in politeness general behavior recognition patterns database 72 and/or the selected culture specific values 56 a, is tabulated and multiplied by a per occurrence score or value from the politeness general behavior recognition patterns database 72 and/or a weighted value from culture specific value database 56 a (e.g., in the form of a cultural module plugged into the determinations of etiquette engine 54). The specific values used for the scores for each redressive element can vary per different designs of regard evaluation system 50, but should range in value to indicate the magnitude of potency of the particular act. For example, while one embodiment of regard evaluation system 50 may assign 0.2 and 0.4 values to two different redress elements, another embodiment of regard evaluation system 50 may assign 50 and 100 values to the same two different items where the fact that one redress items is twice as potent at the second is the primary consideration, not the arbitrary scoring scale applied thereto. In one embodiment, etiquette engine 54 functions automatically without human input or intervention to analyzed the elements of communicative acts 12.

For example, FIG. 6 illustrates a spreadsheet 120 showing a listing of redressive strategies searched for in a communicative act 12, the number of occurrences for each redressive strategy (i.e., the occurrence count), a score value for the respective redressive strategy from politeness general behavior recognition patterns database 72, and a weight for the respective redressive strategy from culture specific value database 56 a, for example. Multiplying the occurrence count by the score value and the weight produces a weighted score value. The weighted score values are summed to arrive at the combined redressive value (i.e., V(A_(X))) for the corresponding communicative act. Other redressive strategies, score values, weight, etc. and summing methods will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the current application.

In one example, communications network extractor 58 includes a processor or other hardware component. While illustrated as being separate components, in one embodiment, a single computer defines both the processor for etiquette engine 54 and communications network extractor 58. Communication network extractor 58 uses the parsed communicative acts 12 output from discourse parser 52 to analyze non-etiquette factors, such as the amount or type of contact between entities in a pairwise manner, common communications, document usage, or other indications in communicative acts linking two entities to one another, to create a working network of entities based on the non-etiquette factors. For example, communicative acts 12 by one entity, e.g., first entity E₁ or other sender 14, to another entity, e.g., second entity E₂ or other receiver 16, mentioning the other entity, copying the other entity, or matching other non-etiquette factors are analyzed, aggregated, and then compared to the aggregated scores of other pairwise entities to create a map or other indication of a social regard network. In one embodiment, communications network extractor 58 functions automatically without human input or intervention to analyze communicative acts 12.

Communications network aggregator 60 includes a processor or other hardware component. In one embodiment, communications network aggregator 60 receives the pairwise scores from etiquette engine 54 regarding politeness and redress used in communicative acts 12 and the pairwise and estimated network analysis from communications network extractor 58. Using this input, communications network aggregator 60 builds a power or regard network map outlining the hierarchy of an organization being analyzed. In one embodiment, the resulting regard network is based primarily on pairwise scores from etiquette engine 54 and uses output from communications network extractor 58 to fill in any holes in the pairwise scores from etiquette engine 54, e.g., where no communicative acts 12 were identified between two entities and/or where the pairwise scores from etiquette engine 54 produce ambiguities. In one example, communications network aggregator 60 uses force-based 2D graph-layout algorithms to determine a one dimensional regard network. In one embodiment, communications network aggregator 60 functions automatically without human input or intervention to analyze the elements of communicative acts 12.

In one embodiment, output items, e.g., pairwise scores or network determinations, from any, some, or all of etiquette engine 54, communications network extractor 56, and communications network aggregator 58 are sent to one or more output writers 62, e.g. processors or other hardware with computer readable instructions to generate various outputs. The one or more output writers 62 is configured to take the data received from etiquette engine 54, communications network extractor 58, and communications network aggregator 60 and to organize the data into any suitable output format such as maps, graphs, spreadsheets, etc. in one or both of user interface or printable format.

FIG. 7 illustrates one example of an output from output writers 62 in the form of a communications map 150. Communications map 150 includes entity representations 152 for each entity analyzed (i.e., each entity that is one of sender 14 and receiver 16 in a communicative act 12). Arrows 154 extend between entity representations 152 indicating a direction of communicative acts 12, where, in one embodiment, the thickness of arrows 154 vary to indicate the relative quantity of communicative acts 12 between each entity pair. Each arrow 154 is labeled with a relative power 20 scored to the entity pair, and, in one example, each entity representation 152 includes a final power score 156 for the respective entity. In one example, a legend or axis 158 is included to further illustrate the variations in power values from bottom to top (or from left to right) ends of the power mapping.

In one embodiment, output writers 62 are configured to output a distilled organizational chart or hierarchy 170 for the social regard network, as generally illustrated in FIG. 9, based on the aggregated data. While the illustrated hierarchy 170 is fairly small, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate upon reading this application, that the disclosed system and method can be used on a much larger scale and, therefore, create much more detailed hierarchies and social regard mappings.

FIG. 10 illustrates another output format, whether provided as a user interface or printed output, from output writers 62. More specifically, power vs. time graph 180 illustrates the power ranking for each entity or a group of the entities being considered over a time wherein each time increment is for a predefined period. Such information can be useful in determining the period when important events occur in an organization. For example, graph line 182 represents the power of a third entity E₃ showing marked spikes in power during period 4 and period 6. Such rises could be attributable to many items, for instance, the arrival of a new organizational member causing third entity E₃ to show power to appear strong to the new organizational member, etc. The data regarding the spike in power may indicate that some fairly significant event occurred, but, in one embodiment, does not provide more context as to what specific event occurred.

In addition, in one embodiment, fifth entity E₅ generally shows a sharp downturn in power rankings at the same time the power rankings for third entity E₃ increase. While the reasoning behind the inverse power of third entity E₃ and fifth entity E₅ is unknown, the occurrence is readily viewable via graph 180 and represents an interesting phenomenon and points investigators' attention toward determining the reason for such power relationship changes.

One embodiment of a method of using regard evaluation system 50 (see FIG. 4) to receive and evaluate communicative acts 12 based on social regard is generally illustrated in FIG. 8 at 100 and is described with additional reference to FIG. 4. Method 100 includes, receiving captured communicative acts 12 via any suitable method, for example, via one or more of transcriptions of spoken (phone or face-to-face) communications, internet relay chat (IRC), forum communications, emails, social networking tools (e.g., Twitter® and Facebook®), and blogs among other possible sources. At 104, the captured communicative acts 12 are passed to discourse parser 52, and discourse parser 52 separates the structural elements of the captured communicative acts 12 and identifies functional relationships between the structural elements of each communicative act 12.

At 106, etiquette engine 54 reviews the elements of communicative acts, and scores politeness behavior based patterns in general behavior recognition patterns database 72 as modified or otherwise scaled based on the patterns and/or modifications provided by culture specific value database 56 a. The result at 106 is a determination and generation of pairwise power or regard scores for each communicative act 12 or group of communicative acts 12 as generally illustrated in FIG. 5 at 76. In one embodiment, the culture specific values are preselected for a particular entity or organization as a whole prior to analysis at 106. The selected culture specific value for a specified culture are used as a module or plug-in to alter or augment the general behavior recognition patterns. In one embodiment, each group of culture specific values stored to one or more databases 56 is based on one or more of a geographic, religious, organizational, or other culture form. In this manner the resulting power or regard scores more accurately reflect and weight the importance of various communicative elements and their respect politeness value, etc. in the environment in which they occur.

At 108, the communications network extractor 58 uses the parsed communicative acts 12 output from discourse parser 52 to analyze patterns in the amount or type of contact between entities in a pairwise manner and to create a working network of entities based on common communicative acts 12, document usage, or other indications in communicative acts linking two entities to one another. At 110, communications network aggregator 60 uses the results from each of operations 106 and 108 to combine the scores and relative analysis into a social regard network depiction or other representation of the overall social regard network.

At 112, output writers 62 receive output from etiquette engine 54, communications network extractor 58, and/or communications network aggregator 60 and arranges information from etiquette engine 54, communications network extractor 58, and/or communications network aggregator 60 into various output formats, e.g., graphs, maps, spreadsheets, and/or charts, illustrating relationships between entities, organizational arrangement, etc. Output writers 62 may deliver such results via a suitable user interface and/or printed arrangement. Other variations in method 100 will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the present application.

FIG. 11 illustrates another example of a resulting user interface or printed arrangement from output writers 62 in the form of a bar chart 190. Bar chart 190 provides a graphical look at the overall occurrence counts, score value, and weighted score values seen over a particular set of communicative acts 12. Reviewing bar chart 190 and similar outputs allows one to see what redressive strategies are used for a group. For example, as shown in bar chart 190, three of twelve redressive strategies account for almost 85% of redressive strategy occurrences. Reviewing actual usage and redress score impacts seen for particular redressive strategies provides feedback regarding the scores, weights, identifications used in a system and, in one embodiment, are used to refine scoring patterns, etc. for the same and/or other cultures during future analysis of communications. Other forms of output from output writers 62 will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the current application.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wired, optical fiber cable, infrared, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made through an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).

The flowchart and block diagram in the above figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowcharts and block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Although the invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments, such embodiments are for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered to limit the invention. Various alternatives and changes will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading this application. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for evaluating communicative acts to determine a social regard score between two communicating entities participating in the communicative act, the two communicating entities collectively defining a communication pair, the system comprising: a patterns database storing behavior recognition patterns defining particular redressive behaviors that may be used in the communicative acts and a redress score associated with each one of the particular redressive behaviors; and an etiquette processor in communication with the patterns database and configured to determine a pairwise regard score for the communicative pair based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in the communicative acts between the two communicating entities of the communicative pair; wherein: the communicative pair is one of a plurality of communicative pairs each including a different two communicating entities, the etiquette processor is configured to determine a different pairwise regard score for each one of the plurality of communicative pairs based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in the communicative acts between a corresponding one of the different two communicating entities of the communicative pair, and the system further comprises: a communications network aggregation processor configured to combine the pairwise regard scores for each one of the plurality of communicative pairs, received from the etiquette processor, into a social regard network representation including a plurality of entities in the social regard network and indicating a respective social regard level of each of the plurality of entities relative to other ones of the plurality of entities, the plurality of entities including the two communicating entities of each one of the plurality of communicative pairs.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communications network extractor configured to determine a network based on non-etiquette factors of the communicative acts.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the communications network aggregation processor is configured to use the network based on non-etiquette factors from the communications network extractor to inform creation of the social regard network representation.
 4. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more output writers configured to arrange one or more of the pairwise regard scores for each one of the plurality of communicative pairs and the social regard network representation into a graphical representation thereof to be viewed via one or more of a user interface and a printed document.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein: the etiquette processor is configured to: determine an act regard score for each of the communicative acts based on analysis of individual elements of a respective one of the communicative acts, and if multiple act regard scores are determined for the communicative pair, then combine the multiple act regard scores for the communicative pair to determine the pairwise regard score between the two communicating entities of the communicative pair.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein: the etiquette processor is further configured to analyze the individual elements of each of the communicative acts to determine the redress score for each of the individual elements of each one of the communicative acts based on the particular redressive behaviors identified in each one of the communicative acts and the behavior recognition patterns stored in the database, and the act regard score is based on a summation of the redress scores for each of the individual elements of the respective one of the communicative acts.
 7. The system of claim 6, further comprising: a culture specific value database including a plurality of cultural modules each configured to at least one of augment and alter one or more of the redress scores associated with one or more of the particular redress behaviors and the summation of the redress scores, wherein: the etiquette processor is configured to determine the redress score for each of the individual elements of each one of the communicative acts based on the particular redressive behaviors identified in each one of the communicative acts, the behavior recognition patterns stored in the database, and a preselected one of the plurality of cultural modules from the culture specific value database.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the preselected one of the plurality of cultural modules is selected based on an expected cultural environment in which the communicative acts take place.
 9. The system of claim 7, further comprising a discourse parser configured to receive the communicative acts and to dissect each of the communicative acts into the individual elements for analysis by the etiquette processor.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the individual elements is a different functional element of the respective communicative act.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the etiquette processor automatically determines the pairwise regard score for each based on analysis of the communicative acts upon receipt of data representing corresponding ones of the communicative acts.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein each pairwise regard score is further based on a ranked imposition of each of the communicative acts for the communicative pair.
 13. A method of determining perceived power differences between parties using politeness based scoring, the method comprising: gathering data regarding a plurality of captured communicative acts occurring between two parties, the two parties defining a sender and receiver pair; using a processor and predefined politeness based patterns stored in at least one database to score each of the plurality of captured communicative acts to determine a plurality of power scores for the sender and receiver pair, each one of the plurality of power scores representing a perceived power difference between the sender and receiver pair for a respective one of the plurality of captured communicative acts based at least in part on politeness used during the respective one of the plurality of captured communicative acts; and combining the plurality of power scores for the captured communicative acts occurring between the sender and receiver pair to construct a combined power score for the sender and receiver pair indicating the perceived power difference between the sender and receiver pair based on all of the plurality of captured communicative acts between the sender and receiver pair; wherein: the sender and receiver pair is one of a plurality of sender and receiver pairs in a group having a previously unknown organizational structure, and the processor determines a different combined power score for each of the of plurality of sender and receiver pairs, and the method further comprise using an aggregating hardware engine to aggregate the different combined power scores for each of the plurality of sender and receiver pairs to construct a social power hierarchy for the group, the social power hierarchy for the group indicating relative power between all individuals in the group that form part of the plurality of sender and receiver pairs.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein: the predefined politeness based patterns stored in the at least one database include scoring values for a plurality of communication components that may be extracted from each of the plurality of captured communicative acts, and using the processor and the predefined politeness based patterns to score each of the plurality of captured communicative acts includes: breaking each of the plurality of captured communicative acts into identified ones of the plurality of communication components, scoring each of the identified ones of the plurality of communication components based on the predefined politeness patterns, and summing scores of each of the identified ones of the plurality of communication components to determine a power score for the sender and receiver pair corresponding to each of the plurality of captured communicative acts occurring between the sender and receiver pair.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein using the processor and the predefined politeness based patterns stored in the at least one database to score each of the plurality of captured communicative acts includes ranking a level of imposition included in each corresponding one of the plurality of captured communicative acts.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein a hardware engine performs the combining the power scores operation.
 17. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining a non-politeness based network based on non-politeness based characteristics of the plurality of captured communicative acts, wherein aggregating the different combined power scores for the plurality of captured communicative acts to construct the social power hierarchy for the group is determined with reference to the non-politeness based network.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein: the predefined politeness based patterns include a general set of politeness scoring patterns and a set of predefined cultural scoring values corresponding to an identified culture of the group, and the using the processor and predefined politeness based patterns to determine the power score is performed using the general set of politeness scoring patterns as one or more of modified and supplemented by the set of predefined cultural scoring values corresponding to the identified culture of the group.
 19. A computer program product for determining social regard between members of the organization using at least one processor device, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising: a first executable portion for receiving a text based representation for each of a plurality of communicative acts occurring between a pair of communicative entities; and a second executable portion for determining a pairwise regard score for the communicative pair, wherein the pairwise regard score is based on redressive strategies used during the plurality of communicative acts occurring between the pair of communicative entities; wherein: the pair of communicative entities are part of an organization having more than two entities, the second executable portion determines a pairwise regard score for other entities in the organization based on communicative acts in addition to the plurality of communicative acts between the pair of communicative entities, and the computer program product further includes a third executable portion for compiling the pairwise regard scores for the pair of communicative entities and the other entities in the organization to construct a social regard network for the organization indicating relative social regard between all entities in the organization that participated in the plurality of communicative acts and the communicative acts in addition to the plurality of communicative acts.
 20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the second executable portion includes: a partitioning executable portion for partitioning each of the plurality of communicative acts into a plurality of functional elements, a scoring executable portion for scoring each of the plurality of functional elements of each of the plurality of communicative acts based on a predefined redressive score accessed from a memory and corresponding with a type of each respective one of the plurality of functional elements, a summing executable portion for summing scores from each of the plurality of functional elements to determine an overall regard score for each of the plurality of communicative acts, and a score aggregation executable portion for aggregating the overall regard scores for each of the plurality of communicative acts occurring between the pair of communicative entities to determine the pairwise regard score for the pair of communicative entities.
 21. A system for evaluating communicative acts to determine social regard between entities performing the communicative acts, wherein each of the communicative acts occurs between two communicating entities, and each set of the two communicating entities defines a communicative pair, the system comprising: a patterns database storing behavior recognition patterns defining particular redressive behaviors that may possibly be used in the communicative acts and a redress score associated with each one of the particular redressive behaviors; a culture specific value database including a plurality of cultural modules each configured to at least one of augment and alter one or more of the redress score associated with one or more of the particular redress behaviors and the summation of the redress scores; and an etiquette processor in communication with the patterns database and configured to determine a pairwise regard score for the communicative pair based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in the communicative acts between the two communicating entities of the communicative pair and a preselected one of the plurality of cultural modules from the culture specific value database; wherein: the communicative pair is one of a plurality of communicative pairs each including a different two communicating entities, the etiquette processor is configured to determine a different pairwise regard score for each one of the plurality of communicative pairs based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in the communicative acts between a corresponding one of the different two communicating entities of the communicative pair, and the system further comprises: a communications network aggregation processor configured to combine the pairwise regard scores for each one of the plurality of communicative pairs, received from the etiquette processor, into a social regard network representation including a plurality of entities in the social regard network and indicating a respective social regard level of each of the plurality of entities relative to other ones of the plurality of entities, the plurality of entities including the two communicating entities of each one of the plurality of communicative pairs.
 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the preselected one of the plurality of cultural modules is selected based on an expected cultural environment in which the communicative acts take place.
 23. A system for evaluating communicative acts, wherein each of the communicative acts occurs between two communicating entities, and each set of the two communicating entities defines a communicative pair, the system comprising: a patterns database storing behavior recognition patterns defining particular redressive behaviors that may be used in the communicative acts and a redress score associated with each one of the particular redressive behaviors; a culture specific value database including a plurality of cultural modules each configured to at least one of augment and alter one or more of the redress score associated with one or more of the particular redress behaviors and the summation of the redress scores; an etiquette processor in communication with the patterns database and configured to determine a pairwise regard score for the communicative pair based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in the communicative acts between the communicative pair and a preselected one of the plurality of cultural modules from the culture specific value database' wherein: the communicative pair is one of a plurality of communicative pairs in an group, each of the plurality of communicative pairs is formed by two of a plurality of communicative entities in the group, the etiquette processor is configured to determine a pairwise regard score for each one of the plurality of communicative pairs based on ones of the particular redressive behaviors identified in communicative acts between the respective plurality of communicative pairs and the preselected one of the plurality of cultural modules from the culture specific database, and the system further comprises: a communications network aggregation processor configured to compile the pairwise regard scores for each one of the plurality of communicative pairs, received from the etiquette processor, into a social regard network representation of the plurality of communicative entities in the group indicating a respective social regard level of each of the plurality of communicative entities relative to other ones of the plurality of communicative entities. 